Groundbreaking ceremony held for new, state-of-the-art $1.5 billion UPMC Presbyterian Hospital

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Construction has begun on what will become the largest hospital in Pittsburgh's history.

UPMC broke ground Tuesday morning on a brand-new facility in Oakland. The new UPMC Presbyterian Hospital will stand 17-stories high and have 636 private patient rooms, officials said.

Click here to scroll through a photo gallery of artist renderings of the facility. 

The hospital will provide transplant, cardiology and neurology services, surgery, care and treatment, UPMC officials said. The design plan includes technology advances for patients, visitors, and staff.

"UPMC has always played a significant role in defining the leading edge of medicine and I am confident that that practice will continue for generations to come," UPMC Board of Directors Chairperson Nicholas Beckwith III.

"This hospital gives us the opportunity to have more contemporary spaces and to be part of the continuum, to have healing spaces, to have technology wired in and really available," said UPMC President and CEO Leslie Davis.

Davis said this new addition will transform health care.

"This does not include more beds, so this is the same amount of beds that we've had in the past, but it's a more contemporary way of taking care of patients. And we know we can invent new science, new technology, invent that in the laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh and then we spread that across all our 42 hospitals," Davis said.

A 450-space parking garage is included in the plans. UPMC said the new hospital will be a green building and the façade will be constructed of energy-efficient, patterned glass.

There will also be a gym for use by staff and visitors. Plus, UPMC said patient rooms will be adaptive for patient care and have digital capabilities.

The $1.5 billion project, taking over 1.2 million square feet of space, is expected to create about 3,400 construction jobs over four years, UPMC said. It is the largest health care construction project in the state.

"The jobs that are going to be created, the building trades, the architects, the engineers, to build this and the jobs that'll be created here," Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said. 

UPMC'S CEO said it plans to connect the existing Presby, which was built more than 100 years ago, to the new one. She said UPMC Montefiore will eventually become an outpatient space.

UPMC said it hopes to have it completed by 2026. 

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